KUSINA A Pinoy Turo Turo Restaurant

Filipino Restaurant Kusina Serves Lechon Kawali and Halo-Halo in Mounds View | Eater Twin Cities

"At Kusina in Mounds View, the throughline of the menu is pork and everything feels rooted in family recipes: Jailin Tabares and her husband Scott Zimmer opened the restaurant last year, and in July she perfected a garlic-rich barbecue marinade that she marinates for a full 24 hours and then tightly compresses on sturdy bamboo skewers to evoke the flavors of Cebu. The menu ranges from slow-cooked humba stewed with black beans to nilat-ang baboy (a soup with a hunk of pork, silky cabbage, and corn), crispy lechon kawali pork belly served with sambal and vinegar, and tightly wrapped lumpia with an herbed pork center; pork blood stew (dinuguan) is adapted with coconut milk to make it sweeter and smoother so you can’t taste the iron. Vegetables are well placed to balance the meat — squash with fresh ginger and bagoong in the pinakbet, and earthy carrots and potatoes in the menudo — many sourced from local farmers markets, while Tabares’s mother, Lola Nating, still helps in the kitchen chopping massive amounts of produce and has become an honorary lola to customers. Zimmer carved the long wooden counter and added bamboo features and lush live plants to the interior; demand has been so high they’re already hunting for a commissary kitchen, and regulars sometimes travel from as far as Winnipeg or drive two hours from Rochester for chicken adobo and the halo-halo topped with ultra-dense ube ice cream and a square of leche flan. Their aim is for everyone to feel at home rather than in a restaurant, and customers say they can taste the love." - Justine Jones